Morning!

Life is always good when you can start it with fresh coffee at 4am, wouldn’t you agree? 

Yesterday I wrote the supremely vowel-intensive post:

TUTORIAL – 7 Of The MOST Fascinating Ways To Monetize Your Sidebar Part 1

which listed some ways you can profit from your WordPress Blog’s sidebar.

But!  Eeek! 

An opportunity now presents itself with as much grace and style as a frozen coffee cup flung through a cherished stained glass window!

How on EARTH can you prioritize what you want to add where??????

Luckily, this is NOT as soul-searingly agonizing as you might think.  After all, contrary to my 7 year old son’s belief, the world will NOT come to an end if you take the time to play and make things right.  Tomorrow always comes (except on the eve of nuclear disaster) so you can always tweak your sidebar, see how your visitors react, get input from your friends, revisit the whole concept, etc.etc.etc.

So!  With that as an introduction, let’s explore some rather bold ways of organizing your blog sidebar so you make MORE money instead of less.

Step 1.)  Ask yourself…what’s the most important aspect of your blog?

I’ll go more into this tomorrow, but for now, let me sit with a wise expression on my face, lean back (first ensuring the kids returned the back leg of my chair), steeple my hands and intone in a beautifully musical one-note murmur the following blinding spear of wisdom.

"What’s most important to YOU in the long run"?

Well?

• Is it building your list?
• Is it getting your name out there in front of other social networkers?
• Is it showcasing advertisers on your blog?
• Is it highlighting your own products?
• Is it showing off your portfolio?

Hmmmm?

Everyone’s priorities are different!  Thus, what works for me Aunt Bertha or my Uncle Dexter might be completely at ends with your chosen monetary goals.

And that’s okay!  For example, my main priority on Virtual Coach is building my list.  Okay, true, you might have noticed that on my main page where I have 5 direct links to my Free Income Fitness sample.  (speaking of which, you HAVE read the free ebook that goes along with that offer, right?  It’s 13 Ways You Are Leaving Money on the Table and methinks you’ll enjoy it greatly!).

And because my priority is building me list, I have chosen my autoresponder to be the FIRST thing you see in my sidebar like so:

Always put your priority in the prime spot of your sidebar.  Of course, your priority might be quite different – you might sell advertising space on your blog, so you want that show up first.

Next, it’s time for:

Step 2.)  Who the heck are YOU?

I realized this after reading the extremely useful help for the Flex Theme that’s active on my site.  Sure, I have my "About Barbara Ling" on the top of my site….but this site is Virtual Coach!  So I chose next to add a small blurb of "About Virtual Coach" as the next entry to my sidebar – if folks haven’t yet subscribed to my list, they’ll immediate see the "About Virtual Coach" as they scan down the page.  This helps build confidence in my readers that I’m worth exploring more:

Once you’re assured that visitors simply cannot miss learning about the magnificent benefits you offer them, you can move into monetizing other components of your sidebar.  And again…your mileage may definitely vary here!

For me, I said to myself:

Step 3.)  Making Money is a Long Term Adventure!

And because it is, I want to ensure that as many people as possible know about me and my writings.  They might not buy from me today, but there’s always tomorrow!

So I opted to list my favorite networking profiles after my About Me block:

I staggered the buttons because, well, I think it’s eyecatching and cool. 

The next section you might want to consider for making money with your blog sidebar is:

Step 4.)  Strengthen Your Authority With Popular and/or Recent Posts

Yes, I know…I have to add the Popularity plugin.  Bad Barbara!  But one thing that’s definitely useful on a blog is having links to your most popular writings so visitors can see where your gems really lie.

I really need to update Recent Posts to Popular Posts.  Mental note to self – add the WordPress Popluar Posts plugin!  (update to self – okay, I just saved the plugin myself – will install it after I finish this post (or after I wake up the kids for breakfast or feed the husband or feed the mooses or…)).

You always want to give readers more reasons to stay and explore your site further.  Your most popular/recent posts can really be useful for that task.

The next section I implemented falls under the category of Help Others.  Do you have a favorite blog or a blogging partner or simply want to help someone out?  If so, you can:

Step 5.)  Give Free Publicity to a Deserving Quality Blog

I REALLY adore the cartoon Nicky 510.  So I decided the next block of my sidebar to listing the most recent posts from that site:

I firmly believe that what goes around, comes around.  Have you seen NIcky510 yet and signed up for their free Daily Dose?  If not, you really should – the humor is fantastic and the photography is effortlessly tremendous.

Let’s see, what next?  Here’s a perfect example of why writing tutorials is so superb – I just realized I have some things out of order myself!  But they might be important to you….you can:

Step 6.)  Showcase Top Commentors/Comments/Authors/etc.

If you really like giving your blog comment authors sidebar space, you can highlight your blog community, their comments, the top commentors, etc.etc.etc.  That would give people more motivation to comment more at your blog (it gives them backlinks and gives you more activity).  Note to self!  Get Top Commentors Plugin! 

What else should your blog sidebar possess?  Well….how ’bout:

Step 7.)  Add Your Blog Navigation

Once folks are at your site, being able to see the categories or archives or what have you can be most useful indeed!

This helps your reader find other topics of interest to him/her.

But we’re not done yet!!  By the time you reach this area of your sidebar….you can pretty much go bananas if you’d like.  For example, because I enjoy making money no matter what, I chose next to:

Step 8.)  Add Affiliate Goodies!

I myself adore the eBay affiliate program….so I make certain to add some goodies that would appeal to readers on me blog.  And because Mobile phones are sooo popular, I chose to focus on:

Any time someone registers at eBay or wins a bid/etc., I get a commission.  And that’s only a DelightFul Thing indeed! 

Another useful trick for monetizing your sidebar is to:

Step 9.)  Revolutionize Your Blogroll

Think your blogroll is only for your friends?  Think again!

You can also add your affiliate links as favorite resources as well as the blogs you admire.  Half my Blogroll is one…half is the other.

 The last nifty thingee I’d like to highlight for monetizing your sidebar is something I have not seen anyone else except myself do.

You’re on Twitter, right?  Well, if you follow me, you’ll notice that every now and then, I’ll tweet about something I find most useful indeed….I call it a Gem Alert.

There’s a method to me madness!  And that leads me to

Step 10.)  Add Your MOST Valuable Tweets

Sure, I could simply list all my tweets on my sidebar, but some of them are pretty mundane.  I want visitors to SEE what I consider valuable….so I tag those with "gemalert" and read them into my sidebar like so.

Nice, eh?  You can do the same thing (but please…use a different hashtag, it will make you stand out much more) too.

In closing

So!  In today’s tutorial, I’ve given you these 10 steps:

•  Step 1.)  Ask yourself…what’s the most important aspect of your blog?
• Step 2.)  Who the heck are YOU?
• Step 3.)  Making Money is a Long Term Adventure!
• Step 4.)  Strengthen Your Authority With Popular and/or Recent Posts
• Step 5.)  Give Free Publicity to a Deserving Quality Blog
• Step 6.)  Showcase Top Commentors/Comments/Authors/etc.
• Step 7.)  Add your Blog Navigation
• Step 8.)  Add Affiliate Goodies!
• Step 9.)  Revolutionize Your Blogroll
• Step 10.)  Add Your MOST Valuable Tweets

These are what work for ME.  Remember!!!  What works for YOU is far more important!  YOU have to decide what are the most important aspects of your sidebar TO YOU….and then make it so.  You can always change things around if the results don’t benefit you the way you deserve.

Thus, it’s time now for action on your part.  Open a notepad file, copy and paste down my 10 steps…and then ask yourself…what do I need to change to make my sidebar bring me in more money/publicity/networking/etc.?

Then get to work!  The benefits can be most supreme indeed.  And feel free to comment below when you’re done or while you’re doing it…I’d love to see how your blog evolves.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps – I left out explaining a key critical aspect of my sidebar – can you tell what it is?

pss – speaking of To Boldly Split Infinitives, have you seen:

Star Trek Talking Collector Plate To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

Star Trek CCG To Boldly Go: 9 events

Star Trek Classic 25 Years Comm Plate-TO BOLDLY GO…

Star Trek CCG To Boldly Go FOIL Temporal Delineatio 8A9

Star Trek CCG 2E TO BOLDLY GO TBG Set Mint Nr Mint

Star Trek CCG 2E To Boldly Go Rare: REMARKABLE REGENERATION 8R39

1993 Pokanoket ……To Boldly Go where no scout ……

Star Trek CCG 2E To Boldly Go Archive Foil: SHRAN, IN ARCHER’S DEBT 8A13

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Like what you've read? Swing on by either my:

• Entrepreneurial site
• Parenting site

to see more!

PS - Speaking about making money, have you seen:

Make Money Advertise to Million iPhone 4G Factory Unlocked-Master Resell Rights

MAKE MONEY 350 PLR WHOLESALE PRODUCTS to SELL ON EBAYCOM + Instruction Guides

Make Money-Show Others How to Get Cheap Airline Flights Tickets Hotel Car Rental

WANT TO MAKE MONEY TRADING CURRENCY? FIRST GET THE CASH YOU'LL NEED - HERE'S HOW